Wild Fermented Fire Cider

It's been very cold and rainy for a bit this week in Baton Rouge, which means a lot of people are about to get sick with viruses. And let me just say the cold and wet weather doesn't directly make you sick. People in Louisiana are adapt to humid wet air, but when a cold front comes through bringing dry cold wind... everything changes for our sinuses. Our sinuses dry out quite a bit, allergies are in full force from the wind, and our sinuses take quite the toll. When that happens our sinuses are more exposed, cracked and dried out making it easier for viruses to infect us via our mucus membranes. Viruses infect bodies through body fluids and mucus membranes and cold dry air just makes us more vulnerable.

I don't think Scotty or I have been sick this year. Ever since we transitioned to a vegan household, started eating our fermented vegetables with every meal for blog posts and instagram photos, and quit our horrible & stressful day jobs... well, we've never felt healthier. A healthy life starts with a healthy gut, a low stress environment, and a healthy mind. Our digestion has never been better and we just feel all around awesome. My eczema, which plagued my life for four years... all over my face, eyelids, and arms is even gone. I mean gone. I get a tiny flare up if I take a too hot shower, but that's nothing compared to how I used to suffer. It's amazing what a nourished gut, nourished skin and happiness can do for your life.

Anyways, no matter how healthy you are, you can still catch a cold or the flu this time of year...Let's talk about that for a second:

The common cold and the flu are VIRUSES not bacteria. 90% of the time when you think you have a "bacterial sinus infection" you don't have a sinus infection... You actually have a virus, causing sinus inflammation.

Antibiotics do nottreat viruses... Let me repeat this... Antibioticsdo not treat viruses. Viruses are unaffected by antibiotics. One of the main reasons (after animal agriculture) for deadly antibiotic resistant superbugs is the wrongful, careless prescribing of antibiotics for colds by physicians.

I job shadowed a physician for a week in college once. It was January and it was cold outside. It was the year it snowed quite a bit in Louisiana. He let me know that most of the people we'd be seeing were going to be in there for suspicion of a sinus infection. He also let me know that people were going to expect, and some would insist on, antibiotics. He was not going to give them though. He had studied microbiology as his undergraduate degree in college, and had more of an appreciation for the microbes than most physicians. He was great. Of the 15 patients we saw the first morning we gave out zero prescriptions of antibiotics. He told me that most physicians will just give them antibiotics to shut the patients up... you know, just give them what they want. That royally pissed me off, because the wrongful prescription of antibiotics should be malpractice... It directly harms the patient and can cause serious damage and multitudes of other illnesses, some of which are deadly.

There's not much you can do to help cure the common cold. It's a virus that quickly changes and runs it's course, so there's not a western medicine magic pill to make it, well let's but honest...just the symptoms, go away. Just your immune system, that's all you have when it comes to fighting off the common cold.

The flu is a little different, there are medications that are sad to help with the flu if you contract the virus, also there is the flu vaccine. Unfortunately, the flu vaccine is not very effective because of the nature of orthomyxoviridae (flu viruses). The flu vaccine's ineffective nature is not due to lack of competency of those making the vaccine. The virus is advanced in the way it replicates, and makes effective vaccine development difficult. The flu vaccine has never been very effective. Scotty and I do not get the flu shot. We made this decision when I took an extensive graduate school course in virology, and I've come to know that the flu shot is...well... mostly irrelevant and ineffective for us. However, not everyone is perfectly healthy. In specialized instances, and cases of immunocompromised patients, it is advised by physicians to get the flu vaccine since it can still possibly lower the risk of contracting the virus.

In our personal lives, we prefer more natural remedies and holistic, preventative health care. The most effective way to prevent yourself from contracting the flu and cold viruses is by washing your hands and not touching your face, mouth and eyes while out in public. Also, the most important thing you can do to ensure quick recovery from sickness is to support a healthy immune system and nourished body throughout the year by focusing on a balanced microbiome.

If you catch the cold or flu virus this year, there are at home remedies to help with symptoms; Remedies that can also help your immune system fight back to health. When you have a cold or the flu virus, the best thing you can do is provide your immune system with all the tools it needs to succeed, as well as protecting your body from more infections while your immune system is busy fighting off viruses.

Our favorite at home remedy is our wild fermented fire cider. Our recipe for fire cider is a little different than the usual and it is full of vitamins, nutrients and essential minerals for proper immune system function. Since we wild ferment it (instead of using apple cider vinegar) there's billions of gut healthy microorganisms included to nourish the gut microbiome... and a nourished gut microbiome is your first line of immune defense. The fire cider is quite spicy and potent, for a good reason. The spicy nature of fire cider helps to stimulate mucus production in the sinuses, providing moisture where it is needed, and easing the symptoms of sinus cavity inflammation. Our Wild Fermented Fire Cider recipe is also unique in the fact that it contains wheatgrass and turmeric. The turmeric adds an extra anti-inflammatory boost, and the wheatgrass adds a boost in Vitamin A, C, E, K and several B vitamins. Wheatgrass also provides iron, zinc, magnesium, and potassium making it wonderful for immune system support. We suggest taking one tablespoon of this fire cider twice a day when you feel a cold coming on.

If you need fire cider now, Andi Lynn's is local for us and she makes pretty great fire cider. Her's is not wild fermented, and therefore the same probiotic benefits aren't there, but it's made with raw apple cider vinegar and great ingredients that can do the trick for clearing up sinuses and helping with inflammation. Find her product here. *

If you're going to master fermentation you'll need to use weight measurements for your fermentation ingredients. That means you need a kitchen scale. In order to select for the best probiotic bacteria (the ones that are actually beneficial and not pathogens) in your ferments, you must weigh salt to create a specific salt concentration. Weighing salt is the only way to create a salt concentration that will select for only probiotic microbes to thrive. This is the scale we use in our home kitchen to weigh salt.

Instructions

First, make a 2.5% saltwater brine. To do this, put an empty large jar on your kitchen scale, and tare/zero the scale. (Taring/Zeroing the scale with a container on it subtracts the weight of the container, allowing you to weigh only what is added to the container). Fill the jar with warm filtered water and record the weight of the water (in grams).

Next multiply the weight of the water by 0.025, the number you get is the amount in grams of salt you need to add to the water.

Place a small separate bowl on your scale and tare the scale. Weigh out your Fermentation Salt in grams.

Add your salt to the water and stir it in until it dissolves. Then let the mixture cool.

While the salt water cools, chop the ingridients.

Place an empty bowl on your kitchen scale and tare it. Place all of the ingredients in the bowl and record the weight in grams. Using the same math method as you did for the brine, multiply the weight of your ingredients by 0.025. The number you get is the grams of salt you need to add.

Place a small separate bowl on your scale and tare the scale. Weigh out your Fermentation Salt in grams.

Add your salt to the ingredient and mix until evenly distributed. If mixing with your hands, you may want to wear gloves so your hands don't burn from the pepper.

Once you have mixed the ingredients and the salt thoroughly, it is time to add the mixture into an empty, clean jar. We used a pint sized mason jar for this recipe.

Place a fermentation weight in the jar to hold everything down. Then once the saltwater brine you made is cool, pour it over the fire cider ingredients and fermentation weight until everything, including the fermentation weight is submerged.

Store your fermentation jar in a cool place out of direct sunlight. It should be kept in an area that stays around 70-75 degrees F

During the first few days of fermentation carbon dioxide and bubbles will be produced. During this time if you are using a regular mason jar lid, you will need to burp the jar to let the gas escape. To burp the jar, just remove your regular mason jar lid and let the gas out, then replace the lid. Both those using and those not using an airlock lid must observe the jar and make sure that the fermentation weight and vegetable pieces are staying submerged BELOW the brine. You may have to remove the lid, press everything down with a clean spoon/tamper, and then replace the lid.

Your fire cider mixture should ferment for 4 weeks, so that all the stages of bacterial succession can occur. The time line is a little different from a cabbage fermentation, due to a different micorbial population on a multitude of different ingredients. 4 weeks also allows enough time for the final stage Lactobacillus bacteria to produce enough lactic acid to drop the pH to preservation levels. Visit our Science of Fermentation blog to read more about the stages of fermentation!

Once the fermentation process is complete, the mixture will smell pleasantly sour and spicy.

After 4 weeks, add the entire contents of the fire cider fermentation to a blender or food processor and blend for about 2 minutes.

Strain off the liquid into a new jar using a mesh top strainer or cheese cloth.

Add the juice of one lemon if you desire. This is not required, but the flavor is nice. Then Refrigerate. It will last for about 6 months in the fridge.

Save the solid matter from the ferment for recipes where you'd like a little heat and garlic flavor. It's great in curry and ramen. We like to freeze it and add it to different recipes.

We tracked our Fire Cider throughout the fermentation process. By checking the progress of microbial stages under the microscope we have provided you with this handy timeline! If you follow our recipe and directions, your timeline for Wild Fermented Fire Cider should approximately match ours!

24 - 72 hours: All contents in the jar should be submerged beneath the brine. At this time there are still Gram negative bacteria and possible pathogens present.

72 hours - 5 days: After 72 hours you should start to see lots of bubbles being produced. This is the stage in which you will burp the jar. This is when the ferment enters stage two of vegetable fermentation. Leuconostoc bacteria begin to thrive and produce a lot of carbon dioxide. Gram negative organisms die off.

5 - 14 days: The bubbles in the brine will decrease, as the ferment leaves stage two and enters stage three. The fire cider mixture will become cloudy and start to develop a pleasant sour, spicy and garlic smell. Lactobacillus species are most abundant during this time period.

14 - 28 days: Lactobacillus make up majority or all of the microbial population. They produce copious amounts of lactic acid, and make the ferment smell even more pleasantly sour. This is the time in which the vegetable mixture becomes preserved. This is when you want to smell and taste test.

Easing your stress and anxiety, decreasing inflammation, boosting natural detoxification processes of the body, restoring a healthy gut lining, and strengthening your immune system all help to keep the gut microbiome in a balanced state. Drinking herbal teas is one of the most natural ways to accomplish these things.

Eating fermented vegetables with prebiotic rich foods, and drinking nourishing herbal teas is a great way to keep your gut health in tip-top shape.

The best way to get started on a gut healthy lifestyle is to learn the basics, and that starts with getting your bearings with the vocabulary. There are a bunch of words that fly around on our blog, on our instagram and out in the world in reference to having a healthy gut. Here is our comprehensive glossary that's a great crash course into understanding gut health.

I grew up in an extremely tiny cajun town, and now I'm a vegan. Why should that mean I can't have/cook/create cajun food? Oh yeah... it doesn't. So here is our fantastic recipe for One Pot Vegan Pastalaya! It's probiotic too!

With veggies we had on hand, some scraps from shooting a how to make summer rolls video, pickles fresh from our oak barrels, some amazing vegan pepper jack cheese, and a bit of my favorite Goddess dressing from Trader Joe's, I surprised myself with the BEST veggie sandwich

This is our most recent fermentation creation and the flavors came out beautiful. When we decided to use our spiralizerto cut the cucumbers, I was a little worried about how the texture would come out... but wow... these turned out wonderfully crunchy, thanks to bay leaves. So far we've eaten these pickle spirals in a vermicelli bowl and it was perfect! I'm sure these would be great on sandwiches and veggie burgers and as a part of a snack board (or cheese board). Hope you enjoy!

If you catch the cold or flu virus this year, there are at home remedies to help with symptoms; Remedies that can also help your immune system fight back to health. When you have a cold or the flu virus, the best thing you can do is provide your immune system with all the tools it needs to succeed, as well as protecting your body from more infections while your immune system is busy fighting off viruses. Our favorite at home remedy is our wild fermented fire cider.

We weren't always plant based. Plant based eating is fairly new to our lives as of this year, and we are LOVING it. We don't really miss meat or dairy at all. Sometimes though, I think about a specific dish we used to enjoy every now and then... Kimchi Mac and Cheese. Well, great news! I missed kimchi mac and cheese so much that I made a vegan version. Enjoy!